Tag: UFC

Well,there’s a reason you didn’t hear about it: It didn’t happen. Thankfully, one of our favorite past times is figuring out what products should needlessly be merged with our MMA obsession. A few days ago, we arrived at Magic the Gathering (MTG for short). We played the addictive card game back in high school. We wondered what a set of MTG that spans the entire MMA world might look like. The below cards–featuring the likes of Dana White, Conor McGregor, Greg Jackson, as well as several “MMA memes”–are the result of our mental meandering.

A few notes: We haven’t played Magic in about 10 years so some of the gameplay semantics might not be totally accurate. Also, some of the abilities are for the purposes of chiding MMA as only irreverent CagePotato can. All real photos in the cards come from Getty Images, save for the photo of “Minowaman” Ikuhisa Minowa, which comes from Sherdog. Another card’s image comes from a YouTube screen capture (you’ll know which one).

The weekend is in the books, and although many of you were indulging in baseball playoffs and college football madness, there was plenty of MMA to equally boast and complain about. Apart from the always-vibrant regional circuit, which included MFC 41 and SFL 35 last Saturday night (watch a dude go through the cage door looking like he was on the wrong end of a Stone Cold Stunner right here), there were four major MMA shows taking place in 48 hours, two of which came from the same promotion that may or may not be ruining the sport with its inflated and overstressed schedule.

To top it all off, there were also a handful of stories outside the cage to boast about, some amusing and some downright miserable.

Here is the Cage Potato “Weekend Roundup,” and quite frankly, the only recap you need:

Rory MacDonald beat Tarec Saffiedine pretty handily last night at UFC Fight Night 54. He out-pointed the Belgian in the first and second rounds, then finished the fight in the third with an uppercut and some nice ground and pound. But don’t read about us telling you the results, see it above for yourself with the actual full-fight video highlights from the event.

The only “big” fight on the prelims was between Daron Cruickshank and Anthony Njokuani. The fight started with about a minute and a half of evenly-matched striking. Cruickshank managed to double-leg Njokuani but couldn’t keep him on the ground for long. Cuickshank was more aggressive in the striking for the next few minutes, throwing a more diverse array of attacks and just more strikes in general. He used these strikes to get Njokuani off balance and turn a high-crotch single leg into a wonderful slam. Cruickshank finished the first round on top in Njokuani’s guard.

In the second round, Cruickshank tried a takedown, which was blocked. He followed that up with this crazy jumping roundhouse that Njokuani simply sidestepped. It seemed as if Cruickshank’s takedowns made Njokuani afraid to open up. Then Cruickshank hit a gorgeous flying knee. Somehow Njokuani survived it. Cruickshank took him down off the flying knee but then landed an accidental illegal knee to Njokuani’s head. Dan Miragliotta briefly stopped the fight then stood him up. However, this made no difference as Cruickshank shot in for a successful double leg takedown afterward. Njokuani fought to his feet and landed a couple of decent shots. Cruickshank landed several of his own not long after. Cruickshank seemed to get the better of the exchanges throughout the rest of the second round.

A right hand from Njokuani buckled Cruickshank early in the third, but then Cruickshank landed an overhand right of his own to even the score. Cruickshank scored with a great spinning back kick to the body as well. Cruickshank took Njokuani down with a minute left in the fight. Njokuani nearly sunk in an armbar but it was too little, too late. Cruickshank won via unanimous decision.

Remember last week when we went apeshit over MMA sites purporting to have full-fight video highlights but not actually delivering?

In case you don’t remember, loads of site posted “full fight video highlights” of the fight between Mark Hunt and Roy Nelson. The only problem was the highlights were missing the most important part: The knockout.

The highlight video above is much better. While it cuts away right before the fight is stopped, it shows just enough of Conor McGregor‘s first-round KO of Dustin Poirier for you to get the idea of how it went down.

And do you know what else is awesome? Pretty much all the other “full fight video highlights” from UFC 178 are the same. They actually show the parts you want to see. Chalk up another victory for the Potato Nation. It seems our irreverence is finally starting to make a difference in the world of MMA SEO clickbaiting.

Watch the other highlights after the jump, and be sure to enjoy your 40-seconds of violence and anodyne commentary!

UFC 178 is in the books, and it was arguably the best UFC event of the year. Leading up to the extravaganza at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the fight card looked promising, even though the cancellation of Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier for the light heavyweight championship had us all pretty bummed out.

With Demetrious Johnson and Chris Cariaso stepping up to the plate, nobody was truly interested in their flyweight title fight, simply because the rest of the card had more compelling stories, alongside fights deemed a little too difficult to call in order to bet the house, Coleman style.

That being said, let’s take a look at the most compelling scraps, and what to make of it all after we spent the last eight hours shadowboxing, binging on dollar store mini donuts, and obsessively searching the web for that CRUZ sweater.

Johnson (and perhaps flyweight in general) lacking buzz isn’t new. He headlined UFC on Fox 8 in Seattle and drew a paltry live gate of $735,000. When the UFC ran the city the year prior, the live gate and attendance were twice as high. And the ratings for UFC on Fox 8? It was 40% lower than UFC on Fox 7 at 2.04 million–a record low at the time.

Flyweights debuted in the UFC in March 2012. When flyweights–to use a loaded cliche– failed to move the needle, proponents of the division said to just give it time. Fans would be wowed by the action and speed in flyweight fights. It’s September 2014 now and the weight class is just as devoid of interest as it ever was.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean lighter weight classes can’t draw. It just means Demetrious Johnson (and much of the current stable of lighter weight fighters) can’t draw.

After Bloody Elbow posted the story, Johnson apologized on his Facebook page and absolved himself of guilt. He wrote the following:

I want to apologize to everybody for my language yesterday. It really sux being accused of something I didn’t do. So plz forgive my reaction to the whole situation. My day will come that I can prove I’m innocent. Thank you for the support! Without the fans and my close friends/family I wouldn’t be able to function. I love you all….

In case you didn’t read the account of Johnson’s alleged abuse on Bloody Elbow, here’s the rundown: